The individuation process of a young boy in drama therapy : a child's story

Abstract

The individuation process according to Carl Jung is a process that refers to the personal journey of bringing forth elements of one's unconscious into the light of consciousness. He has argued that this process can only occur in the second half of life: adulthood, as the ego is mature enough to acknowledge the unconscious. However, child psychoanalysist Michael Fordham has argued that individuation occurs as early as the age of two years. His theory of individuation in childhood has opened the path for me to inquire how drama therapy could help children to engage in this process much sooner. The purpose of this research paper is to suggest that drama therapy has provided a nine year old boy the means to make some aspects of his unconscious, conscious through various projective techniques such as character development through storymaking and play, and embodiment of role. The author suggests that engagement in these techniques as well as verbal processing with a drama therapist enabled this young boy to become more self aware of the elements of his unconscious, the archetypes. In addition, it could also be said that this young boy began his process of individuation that Jung has claimed occurred much later in life. Thus, in order to highlight how Jungian psychology can work with techniques in drama therapy, this paper focuses on a case study of ten therapy sessions that occurred during the later half of this young boy's therapeutic process.